[Note: I began writing this post a couple weeks ago, so some of this information may be a bit out of date. I encourage you to follow the ATL Symphony Musicians on Facebook to keep up with the latest news.]

Just as the tumult at the Met draws to a close, new drama unfolds, this time in the South. The Atlanta Symphony, having reached the end of the fragile contract agreement forged back during its 2012 labor dispute, again faces a bitter musician lockout. You can read a summary of the situation, as well as statements from both sides, here. I also want to share a few articles from really valuable perspectives:

Banner from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s website, as of Oct. 5, 2014

Things seem pretty hopeless, with management staunch in its refusal to negotiate with the musicians’ best interests in mind. But then, things seemed pretty hopeless with the Met, yet in the end, compromise proved possible. Despite having to layoff twenty-two non-union workers, the Met emerged from the whole debacle with a vow to “bring about a new era of artistic vitality and fiscal responsibility.” And how about the Spokane Symphony? In 2012, the Spokane musicians’ strike ended with their accepting 11% in pay cuts; now, they’ve just announced a 7.5% raise in musicians’ salary. We’ve seen it again and again — in Minnesota, in San Francisco, in Chicago, in Detroit — compromise (often at significant expense, financial and otherwise, to the musicians) and, eventually, recovery.

Despite the promise of recovery, this torrent of financial woes for American symphony orchestras over the past couple years really begs the question — why? What’s the cause of money troubles so deep that an orchestra’s management deems it necessary to lock out the orchestra’s world-class musicians?

As several of the above links point out, many of the troubled orchestras faced irresponsible spending, overpaid management, and declining ticket sales resulting in a reliance on endowments. But these aren’t the sources of the problem, merely symptoms.

I was struck by a comment my friend made recently about the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Los Angeles — more specifically, Hollywood — needed a professional orchestra to fulfill the musical demands of the film industry. The result? The LA Phil is one of the most successful and fiscally stable orchestras in America today. Orchestras succeed in places where the community needs them, my friend explained: you can’t just foist a symphony upon a community and expect the community to support it.